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Original poster

To not merrily give away my Christmas lunch to a German family I've never even met?

228 replies

HarrietKettleWasHere · 28/12/2017 18:55

Ok not me but Jo March.

I'n watching the travesty BBC adaption of Little Women.

The mum comes home and makes them feel awful just as they are about to tuck in to all the lovely food, because of the poor immigrant family, who are, by all accounts, having a really horrible time. Even though Marmee has already given them all her firewood. And they skip out the door so jolly, with all their bacon, sausages and maple syrup, and cream that they get only at Christmas to bestow upon the family. Even selfish Amy!

I was just wondering if I'd have been quite so joyful about doing that at a similar age Grin

Beth then gets scarlet fever from the baby, which goes to show no good deed goes unpunished.

It looks like it'll be a clementine for dinner, 1 segment apiece, but luckily the rich family from down the road then take pity on them and send a lovely ham.

This is lighthearted by the way. It can't be serious really because the adaption is quite awful.

I don't know is where they filmed it but it can't be Massachusetts as I keep hearing a Great Tit call and they don't have those there pedantic

Also Amy is supposed to be 12 and she looks 27.

What other classics has television managed to ruin for you with their adaptions?

OP posts:
LaurieMarlow · 28/12/2017 22:24

Little men was probably my favourite of the Alcott books. Though in retrospect, Demi Brooke was insufferably perfect and Daisy a complete doormat and both of them deserved a slap. The Bhaer kids and even Amy's little girl were much better.

Original poster
HarrietKettleWasHere · 28/12/2017 22:24

Well Beth does a good show at swooning whimsiliy at Laurie from the window in episode 3! I've never considered that angle before.

1994 Beth was emo and always knew her card was marked young; no point mooning over boys.

OP posts:
viques · 28/12/2017 22:25

I really enjoyed this adaptation. Sorry. Creeps off to my Corner of Critical Shame........

JonnaSilvie · 28/12/2017 22:33

Who remembers "Poor Billy" from Little Men? The boy who was really intelligent, but he had a fever and then suffered brain damage, so his parents sent him to Plumfield to be looked after by Jo? His story is so tragic, and told in all of one paragraph. Harrowing. What illness is he supposed to have had?

DSHathawayGivesMeFannyGallops · 28/12/2017 22:36

I thought Jo said no to Laurie due to thinking Beth loved him and the fact that she sees him as a brother!

annandale · 28/12/2017 22:36

Ooh jonna. Not sure, could it have been epilepsy?

BestIsWest · 28/12/2017 22:36

Ashley Jensen sorry!

kierenthecommunity · 28/12/2017 22:37

Who remembers "Poor Billy" from Little Men? The boy who was really intelligent, but he had a fever and then suffered brain damage, so his parents sent him to Plumfield to be looked after by Jo? His story is so tragic, and told in all of one paragraph. Harrowing. What illness is he supposed to have had?

Wasn't it some sort of nervous/mental breakdown?

LaurieMarlow · 28/12/2017 22:39

I can't remember the illness, but I seem to remember his father was blamed for trying to hothouse him.

JonnaSilvie · 28/12/2017 22:42

I hadn't considered epilepsy. I believe it was more than a nervous breakdown, though, as he's mentioned to have passed away before the start of Jo's Boys, so surely there was some kind of physical ailment?

LemonysSnicket · 28/12/2017 22:43

I’m 22 and the 12 year old looks older than me ....

Original poster
HarrietKettleWasHere · 28/12/2017 22:48

The cat has had kittens again in episode 3!

Poor kitty. That's about six litters now.

OP posts:
JonnaSilvie · 28/12/2017 22:48

And (sorry to swing the discussion this way!), on the topic of mystery, tragical classics' ailments, what did Beth actually die from? I seem to remember that she was weakened by the scarlet fever...

And what about Saint Helen in What Katy Did?

JonnaSilvie · 28/12/2017 22:49

Saint Helen of the Swing Stand Vase.

Original poster
HarrietKettleWasHere · 28/12/2017 22:49

I read somewhere that she withered away from anorexia! Interesting theory.

I think the Scarlett fever weakened her heart or something.

OP posts:
ThumbWitchesAbroad · 28/12/2017 22:50

I haven't seen this and am unlikely to - but if you want to talk about actresses playing far outside their age, the best example (in all ways) is Shirley Henderson, playing a 12yo Moaning Myrtle in Harry Potter, at the age of 37! Xmas Grin

I was always annoyed by spoilt Amy. And I've read all the books (including Little Men and Jo's Boys) - she doesn't get any more likeable, IMO. I can see NOW why Jo turned Laurie down, she married an older father-figurish bloke instead - but at the time I read it I was furious with her! And then for Amy to waltz off with him, while Jo was pining for Beth - grrrr.

LaurieMarlow · 28/12/2017 22:53

I'm still not over Emma Thompson aged 36 (or thereabouts) playing 19 year old Elinor Dashwood in Sense and Sensibility.

JonnaSilvie · 28/12/2017 22:54

Wow, interesting theory on the anorexia! I've never heard of that before.

Sorry to be a Potter Pedant, but Moaning Myrtle was fourteen when she died Grin

Though that's the least of the casting problems with those films. The entire Harry film series adaptation was so shit, in SO many ways. It is a great wish of mine that they will be remade with much more love and care way, way in the future, when they aren't so "heat of the moment" anymore.

ThumbWitchesAbroad · 28/12/2017 22:56

14 was she? I guessed at 12, I don't remember them mentioning her age although they probably did.

JonnaSilvie · 28/12/2017 22:59

I think the exact age came from JKR on Pottermore, after the fact.

NinjaLeprechaun · 28/12/2017 23:16

"Actors in C19/early C20 drama set in North Eastern N. America or Canada often seem to have slightly Irish accents at the mo. See also Anne with an E and Alias Grace."
A lot of the accents in Eastern Canada, including PEI, have a pretty distinct Irish influence. 100 years ago or so it would have been even more pronounced.

DeepanKrispanEven · 28/12/2017 23:20

I don't see the big deal about the actresses' ages. Amy may have been 12 at the beginning of Little Women, but she obviously doesn't stay that age and is old enough to be married by the end of Good Wives. It would be ludicrous to cast a 12 or 14 year old to play her all the way through, and it would be just annoying to have two different actresses.

I always preferred Little Men to Little Women, I was pleased to get a quick flash of it right at the end.

BWatchWatcher · 28/12/2017 23:20

Anne with an E actors have slightly Irishy accents because it's the Atlantic provinces of Canada.
Have you ever heard a modern day Newfoundland accent?
The later what Katie Did books are worth a read.

BWatchWatcher · 28/12/2017 23:23

I hate Ann with an E.
Getting her period at 10 years old (common now, not so common in a half starved orphan at the turn of the century)Matthew contemplating suicide, Gilbert an orphan?
No no no noooo

StripySocksAndDocs · 28/12/2017 23:31

Anne with an E was older than 10 I thought. 13/14 wasn't it?

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